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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Review & Giveaway ~*~ Penance by Ann Mayburn

Blurb:

When Wyatt and Michelle leave for Chicago to attend the wedding of an old friend of Michelle’s, Wyatt has no idea how close his beloved Domina is to the edge. While helping Wyatt battle the demons of his PTSD, Michelle has been trying to ignore her own issues, but the past refuses to stay buried and she soon finds herself spiraling out of control. More determined than ever to protect Wyatt from herself, Michelle tries to pretend everything is perfect with devastating results.

Wyatt can see that Michelle is losing it, but he doesn’t know how to help her when she refuses to admit there’s a problem. No longer able to deal with the pressure of pretending to be perfect, Michelle self-destructs. Wyatt is now faced with a bitter choice - leave the woman who owns his heart or start a long and arduous journey to rescue the other half of his soul from her own personal Hell.

Penance is the conclusion of Michelle and Wyatt’s tale of hope, loss, healing, and most of all forgiveness.

Review~
First let me say you MUST read Still before jumping into Penance. The information about Still is at the bottom of the post. Tt was one of my best reads of 2013 so I know you won't be disappointed.

Penance, well easily one of my top reads of 2014. The relationship they started in Still carries on in Penance, only instead of dealign with Wyatt's PTSD, Michelle now has to deal with her own. While she is a strong, kick-ass, woman this may be what rips her and Wyatt apart and that is her biggest fear.

If you are looking for a light and fluffy story, this isn't for you. Michelle & Wyatt's story is emotional and gritty. It will tug and maybe even tear at your heart strings putting you through an emotional wringer. Ann Mayburn is one of the Queens of writing a story that will take the readers and emotional roller coaster rides almost as intense as what the characters are going through.

A reader warning in case anyone has triggers or wonders . . . there is BDSM, suspension, PTSD, Female Dominants, Male Dominants, and both male and female submissives. The BDSM play isn't edgy but it is well written and flows with the story so don't let that turn you off :)

Author Information

With over thirty published books, Ann is Queen of the Castle to her wonderful husband and three sons in the mountains of West Virginia. In her past lives she's been an Import Broker, a Communications Specialist, a US Navy Civilian Contractor, a Bartender/Waitress, and an actor at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. She also spent a summer touring with the Grateful Dead-though she will deny to her children that it ever happened.

From a young age she's been fascinated by myths and fairytales, and the romance that often was the center of the story. As Ann grew older and her hormones kicked in, she discovered trashy romance novels. Great at first, but she soon grew tired of the endless stories with a big wonderful emotional buildup to really short and crappy sex. Never a big fan of purple prose, throbbing spears of fleshy pleasure and wet honey pots make her giggle, she sought out books that gave the sex scenes in the story just as much detail and plot as everything else-without using cringe worthy euphemisms. This led her to the wonderful world of Erotic Romance, and she's never looked back.

Now Ann spends her days trying to tune out cartoons playing in the background to get into her 'sexy space' and has accepted that her Muse has a severe case of ADD.

Ann loves to talk with her fans, as long as they realize she's weird and that sarcasm doesn't translate well via text.

The story of a forbidden love forged in the heat of battle,a war hero haunted by PTSD,and the Dominatrix who won't admit her love for him, yet can't live without him kneeling at her side.

Dr. Michelle Sapphire and Gunnery Sergeant Wyatt Callahan formed an unbreakable bond and an unacknowledged, forbidden attraction to each other while serving together in Afghanistan. Their lives are forever changed when a mortar attack grievously wounds Wyatt and Michelle brings him back from the brink of death. But when they both return to the civilian world, Michelle discovers that her rock-solid Marine is suffering from severe PTSD and may even be suicidal.

Wyatt Callahan fell hard for the aristocratic blonde doctor the moment he laid eyes on her. After reentering civilian life in his hometown near Austin, Texas, Wyatt is plagued by nightmares of the death and suffering he witnessed during the war. He'd love to reach out to Michelle, but Michelle is a Dominatrix, and she has made it very clear to Wyatt she isn't interested in a relationship with anyone who doesn't accept her lifestyle. An Alpha male to the core, he can't imagine the appeal of being submissive. At the same time, the idea of serving Michelle, of being everything she wants and needs, rings true in his wounded soul.

Michelle has dark secrets of her own, and together with Wyatt she will have to battle her personal demons during their emotional journey of healing, redemption, and love.

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